George Osborne made £320k from speeches after leaving Government

JACK MAIDMENT

George Osborne made £320,000 in a matter of weeks from delivering speeches in America, official figures show.

The former chancellor, sacked from the Government by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister in July, has been paid more than £80,000 a go for some of his recent speaking engagements.

The figures, revealed in the latest register of MPs’ financial interests, show Mr Osborne expects to receive payments of £81,174 and £60,578 from JP Morgan for two speeches delivered at the start of October - a total of seven hours work.

Mr Osborne signed up to the Washington Speakers’ Bureau after he left Government and he is due to be paid £80,240 from Palmex Derivatives for a speech in New York he gave on October 27 - which he recorded as a total of two hours work.

Mr Osborne also expects to be paid £69,992 by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in return for a speech on September 27 and October 18.

Meanwhile, the former chancellor is due to be paid £28,454 for a speech on October 17 from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The latest register of interests also show Michael Bloomberg paid for Mr Osborne and his wife to attend a dinner for the former mayor of New York City in Paris.

The value of the travel, accommodation and dinner in the middle of October was estimated at £4,086.

Mr Osborne has previously disclosed two helicopter trips in the register of interests: one in November 2015 to the Forest of Dean Conservative dinner and another to Ripon North Conservatives’ Summer Reception in July this year.